Digging apparatus



Jan. 15, 1924. 4 1,481,234

A. SMITH l DIGGING APPARATUS Fi1e d Jan. 14, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR F7061/ s Tus SW1/TH JHM/Elm@ ATTORNEYS 1 A. SMITH DIGGING APPARATUS Fild Jan. 14, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Hum/s Tus 5M 1TH ATTORNEY 5 Patented dan. l5, 11924.

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AUGUSTUS SMITH, OF BOSELLE, JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO( BERG-EN POINT IRON WORKS, OF BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

DIGGING- APPARATUS.

Application filed January 14, 1922. Serial lo.V 530,497.

T 0 all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS SMrrH, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Roselle, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented cer- Y tain new and useful Improvements in Digging Apparatus, of which the following 1s a specification. v 4

My invention relates to digging apparatus, and particularly to apparatus for operating a digging bucket of the clam-Sheller orange-peel type. rThe invention is concerned particularly with the trolley arrange- Y ment by which the bucket is swung from digging to discharge position, and vice versa; and secondly, with the driving machinery or winding drums which control the position of the trolley.

In the accompanying drawings- F ig. 1 is a side elevation of an installation in which my invention is embodied in one form;

Fig. 2 is a partial elevation at right angles thereto; and

F ig. 3 is a plan of a modified arrangement of the Winding drums.

As here shown the digging bucket 1, of the clam-shell type, is suspended by a double line 1. A one-line bucket may be used if preferred, but a two-line bucket is the more usual type, and either form of suspension may be employed Without in any Way modifying the present invention. A boom 2 is employed to hold the bucket out at any desired distance fromthe receiving hopper 3, or other point at which the bucket is discharged. The trolley 4 guides the bucket as it is swung in and out, or toward or from f discharge position over the hopper and its outward digging position. The trolley is suspended by a bar rod chain or rope 5 from the outer end of the boom 2, so that when the trolley hangs freely without restraint of its inhaul line, the bucket will hang from the end ofthe'boom in the furthest digging position. The inhaul rope 6 pulls the trolley in and thus moves the bucket to discharge position over the hop- The inhaul rope 6 is carried over suitable sheaves to a winding drum 7 for operating the trolley inhaul, while the drum or drums 8 operate the bucket, a single drum being used for a one-line bucket, and a pair of drums frequently mounted on the same shaft` rope measured from the bucket 1 to the operating drum 8 is the same for any position of the trolley, which results from holding the drum or drums 8 stationary during the operation of in-hauling the trolley,

theV path 10 of the bucket will be almost equi-distant from the path 9 at almost all points. This is the main object and result of the first phase of my present invention. A further 'advantage is an elimination of complication in the machinery, and a reduc-` tion of weight and cost.

The bucket may be closed and hoisted to a proper distance from the trolley, and the drum or drums 8 then held motionless, while the trolley is pulled in'independently by drum 7 pulling on the inhaul'rope 6. The simplest form of operating lmachinery therefore is a. means for opening and closing and lifting the bucket by drum or drums 8, and quite independent means for inhauling the trolley by the drum 7. I have devised, however, a combination of drums and their driving gear particularly applicable to my improved form of trolley, the object of which combination is to save one motor and its associated controller, thereby, diminishing the cost for a large installation where the expense of the motor and controller would exceed that incident to the arrangement of the gears and brakes to which this phase of invention relates. As here shown, the ropes for opening and closing the bucket are wound on the drums 8 and 8. 8 is the opening and closing drum operated by its independent motor and loosely mounted on released, the motor ll will cause the difterential or equalizer casing l2 to revolve, and with it pinion "i8 keyed to the outside oi' the casing', which in turn will drive the gear 19 and turn the drum 17 on which the' which would cause the bucket to travel iny curved path becoming at last tangent to the curved path marked l0 iny Fig. could do this by allowino brake yon surface 17 to slip a little which `would permit drum 7 to revolve slightly without entirely stopping the shaltl l5 and drinn 8. leuch a proceeding, while requiring considerable manipulating' skill, would of a trip ot the buckeA` om loading` to discharging'v position slightly and with no unreasonable use ot the machinery because by the arrangement of ropes shown in Fig. l it will be noticed thatthe pull orP rope 6 which inhauls the trolley is always opposed to the pull of the rope irom the bucket to drum S, and hence as the bucket is pulled in over the receiving hopper the resistance ot drum Z to being revolved by the motor constantly increases until, at some point in the path, it would exact-ly balance the resisting l, he'

'educe the time c torque of drum 8 and thus tend to relieve the brake on surface 17 and brak/20, even if the apparatus were used in the simple way or hoisting` the bucket first and then inhauling the trolley. A further useful property of the relation oi gears and "drums shown is that the motor ll will continue to revolve in the same direction without pause7 whether hoistino the bucket or inhaulingv the trolley, which is what is required in Fig. l. On the ret-urn trip the motor ll will revolve in the saine direction to unwind drum 7 and let the trolley swing out, and then to unwind drum 8 and allow the bucket to fall, whether the operation be successively periforme l orcombined to somer extent by permitting a slight slippage on the brake `17 as on the up trip, described previously. l

Various modilications in details of arrangement and construction or parts will readily occur to those skilled in the art,

without departing Yfrom what l claim as my invention.

l. claim:

In. apparatus et the type described, a tower, a boom thereon, a pendulum trolley suspended from the outer end ot the boom, a sheave on the boom, bucket operating rope engaging said pendulum trolley and boom sheave, a slieave on the tower, inliaul rope means extending directly trom the pendulum trolley to the tower sheave, and means 'lor operating` the trolley inhaul and the bucket operating ropes.

ln testimony whereof l have signed my name to this specication.

AUGUSTUS SMITH. 

